Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-11


of death struck Him!
There was very touching scene
among an Indian tribe in the last centu-
~. 1t seemed that one OF the chIeftains
had slain a man belonging TO an opposite
tribe, and that tribe came up and said;
eve will
EXTERAIINATE YOU
''unless you surrender the man who com
mitted that crime" The chititain who
did the crime stepped out from the ranks
and said: - am not afraid 10 die, bat
have g wife and four children, and l have
father aged and 3 mother aged, whom l
support by hunting, ard l sorrow to leave
them helpless" Just as he said that his
old father from behind stepped out
and said: "He shall not die. I take his
place. I am old and well stricken il
years. l can do no good. might as
we'll die. My days are almost over. He
cannot be spared. Take me-" And they
accepted the sacrifice. Wonderful saCri-
flee, you say, but rot so wonderful as
that found in the Gospel, for we deserved
to die, aye, we were sentenced when
Christ, not worn out with years but ia
the flush Of His youth, said: "Save that
man from going down to the pit; I am
the ransom. Put his burdens on my
shoulders. Let his stripes fall on my
back Take my heart for his heart. Let
me die that he may live" Shall it be
told to-day in heaven that nOtwithstand
ing all those wounds, and all that blood,
and all those te8rs, and all that agony,
you would not accept him?
WIS it for crimes that had done,
He grOaned upon he tree:
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree.
There is no woe amid the surroundings
Of that scene that imprt6ses memOre than
that Of His own mother. You need not
point her cut to me. can see by the
sorrow, the anguish, the woe, bY he up
thrown hands. That III means mother.
con" you say, "Why didn't she 90 down
10 the f0oa Of the nil anu sit with her
back 10 the scene? II was TOO horrible
for nGr TO look upon" Do you not know
when "a enid is in anguish or trouble j.
always makes . heroine o. 2 mother:
Take her away, you say, from the cross.
You cannot drag her away. Sne Wl.kKeep
on looking; rs long as her son breathes
she will stGn0 ther4 looking. On, what
q scene il was tor
TENDER HEARTED MOTHER
to look upon How gladly she would
hxve sprung to His relief. 1t was her
son. Her SON. How gladly she would
have Clam5ered up on the cross and hung
there herself il her son could have been
relieved. How strengthening she would
have been 10 Christ if she might have
come close by Him, aud s0Othed Him.
Oh, there was a good deal in what the
little sick child said upon whom a surgi-
cal operation Of painful nature must be
performed. The doctor said: "That
child won't live through this operation
unless you encourage him. You 60 in
and get his consent" The father told
him all the doctor said, and added:
"Now, John, will you go through with it?
Will you consent to it?' He looked very
pale, and he thought minute and said:
"Yes, father, if you wiz hold my hand l
will" SO the father held his hand, and
led him straight through the peril. On,
woman, in your hour Of anguish whom do
you want with you? Mother. Young
man, in your hour Of trouble who do you
want to console you? Mother. If the
mother Of Jesus could only have taken
those bleeding feet into her lap If she
might h2ve taken the dying head On her
BOSOM, If she might have said to Him
CIT VIII soon be over, Jesus; it will soon
be over, and We will meet again, and it
will be all WE'LL" But no, she dared not
come up so close. They would have
struck her back with their banners
They would have Kicked her down the
hill.
There can be no alienation atGI. Jesus
must suffer and Mary must look. | sup
pose she thought Of the birth-hour in
Bethlehem. | suppose she thought of the
time when, with her bOyin her bosom, she
FASTENED on in the darkness in the flight
towards Egypt. suppose sae thought of
His b0yho0d, when He was the Joy of her
heart. suppose she thought OF the
THOUSAND KINDNKsSKs
He had done her, not fOrsaklng her or for
getting her, even in His last moment, but
turning TO John and saying: There is
mother; take her with you. She is old
now. She cannot help herself Dr. for
her Just as I would have done for her if |
had lived. Be very tender and gentle
with her. Behold thy mother" She
thought t all over, and there is no memo-i
~ like mothers memory, and there is
no woe like a mothers woe.
| remark again: This is q tender scene
because II is a Christian reunion. Why
was it that in the seasonal meeting, when
| asked woman if it were her son who
sat next tc her, making protest. n of his
faith, she made no answer; but after
moment, trying 20 control her emotion,
she burst into tesrs? l said within my
self, she need not tell me the story. l. is
the old story Of a prodigal got back. "The
dead is alive again, and the lost is found"
o., how many families there are that re-
jOice together to-day,
soks l,,,,y Lb, ,rk &c -
year, perhaps, will not know much about
each other. You go in one circle of So
ciety, these go in some other circle of so
ciety, and this one travels in that path,
and this one the other path; but to-day We
sllcome on one platform, and we make one
confession, and we cling to one cross,
and we gaze upon one death anguish. 1t
seems to me this morning not like
church but like great family circle, and
we Join hands around the cross Of Christ,
and we say: "One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, ore cross, one Christ, one doX-
ology, one heaven," While stand here
it seems to NE as if
THIS COMMUNION TABLE,
which is only seven or eight feet long and
three or four feet wide, Wldens until all the
Christians of our own denomination can
SiC az I'' anu Sui LIZ S1"AG ~ tNoLi9 al III
sll the Christians in this land OF al names /
and denominations come and sit at it; |
and still the table widenS until it bridges /
the sea, and Christians on the other side I
Of tie Atlantic come and sit at it; and
still that table WiGens, until the redeemed ,
Of heaven mingle in the communion: !
Church militant; church triumphant.
one army of the living God
To His co mand we bow;
Part of the host have CT ssed the hood,
And part are crossing now.
Again, my friends, this is an absorbing
han 3pJ1c